Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for giving me the opportunity to update the House on the ongoing regulatory programme undertaken by the Department of Health and Children, including the regulation of health and social care professionals.

The Health and Social Care Professionals Act was passed by the Oireachtas in 2005. The Act provides for the establishment of a system of statutory registration for 12 health and social care professions. The 12 professions to be regulated under the Act are clinical biochemists, dieticians, medical scientists, occupational therapists, orthoptists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists, radiographers, social care workers, social workers, and speech and language therapists. This new system of statutory registration will apply to the 12 professions regardless of whether they work in the public or private sector or are self-employed and it is the first time that fitness to practise procedures for those professions will be put in place on a statutory basis.

The structure of the system of statutory registration will comprise a registration board for each of the professions to be registered, a health and social care professionals council with overall responsibility for the regulatory system and a committee structure to deal with disciplinary matters. As a first step in the implementation of the system of statutory registration, the Minister for Health and Children launched the Health and Social Care Professionals Council in March 2007. The chief executive officer of the council was appointed in 2008 and additional senior administrative staff took up duty with the council in late 2009. The council must establish a registration board for each of the 12 professions currently covered by the Act. These appointments, and further progress in the establishment of a suitable organisational structure, will greatly assist the council in its ongoing work in preparing for the establishment of the individual registration boards, the first of which, the social work registration board, is to be established shortly.

The council is currently working to put in place the necessary structures for registration, education and fitness to practise for the 12 health and social care professions designated in the Act and it is hoped to bring additional registration boards on stream in late 2010. The council will enable health and social care professionals to practice in a regulated, controlled and safe environment and in a manner which will ensure the provision of high quality interventions, meeting the challenges of increasingly complex and evolving care for service users. Health and social care professionals will be facilitated in ensuring responsible and accountable practices while providing the highest level of patient care and service.

While the proposed system of statutory registration applies in the first instance to 12 health and social care professions mentioned, the legislation empowers the Minister for Health and Children to include, on the basis of specific criteria, additional health and social care professions in the regulatory system over time, as appropriate. The priority for the Health and Social Care Professionals Council is to establish in the first instance statutory registration for the 12 designated health and social care professions. The issue of inclusion of other grades, such as psychotherapists and counsellors, within the scope of statutory registration, will be considered after the initial designated 12 professional grades have been fully addressed.

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